A 54-year-old Lowell man has been sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison for receiving images of child pornography.

U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge said Thursday that Timothy Hirschey was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after the prison term.

Hirschey pleaded guilty in April to the charge in federal court. At sentencing, the government presented the court with evidence that Hirschey allegedly possessed more than 10,000 images of children - some depicting minors as young as 6 years old- engaged in sexual activity.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice.